Sen. Jeff Merkley made headlines Wednesday when he brandished his cell phone at the head of the National Security Agency and asked him what gave him the right to capture his personal phone data.

At the same time the Oregon Democrat also was the target of a classic Washington leak revealing that he had skipped an intelligence briefing offering up some of the same information he had complained about not getting.

Merkley's aides dismissed the leak stories -- carried by BuzzFeed and Politico -- as much ado about nothing while playing up the images of Merkley waving his phone at the committee hearing.

If nothing else, it's a sign of how Washington's power players are seeking to shape the public debate launched by last week's leaks revealing just how widespread government surveillance is of phone and internet data.

On this issue, Merkley has tended to be overshadowed by his fellow Oregon Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee and has been a leading critic of what he sees as overly broad government surveillance.

But Merkley has also been a tough critic of government surveillance programs, and that led to his prominence on Wednesday.

At meeting of the Senate Appropriations Committee, seen in the clip above, Merkley asks Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, how the U.S. got from a "reasonable grounds" standard for gathering data to "all phone records all the time, all locations."

Merkley added:

"Here I have my Verizon phone, my cell phone. What authorized investigation gave you the grounds for acquiring my cell phone data?"

Alexander responded that it was a "complex area" but that he believed the public should have access to the legal reasoning if it doesn't endanger security. "I will work hard to do that," he said, "and if I can't do that, I will come back to you and tell you why."

Meanwhile, BuzzFeed reported Wednesday evening that Merkley could have learned about the very program he had said he was in the dark about if he had not skipped a November briefing set up for several senators.

According to a source close to the situation, the Nov. 27 briefing,
arranged by Sens. Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, included then-Assistant
Attorney General for National Security Lisa Monaco, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, DNI General Counsel Bob Litt, and NSA General Counsel Rajesh De.

The
source said that while attendees waited for Merkley before beginning
the meeting, the liberal Democrat made only a brief appearance before
excusing himself and then going on MSNBC’s Hardball.

Jamal Raad, a spokesman for Merkley, confirmed the basic outlines of the report, according to Politico. But Raad said Merkley had no idea that the outlines of the internet surveillance program -- known as Prism -- would be revealed in the briefing.

"Senator Merkley is deeply concerned about the privacy of American
citizens and the scope of government data collection, and he has sought
out extensive information in that regard. In this case, Senator Merkley
thought the meeting would be on an area that he had already been
briefed on, and when conflicts arose he missed the meeting," Raad said.

--Jeff Mapes

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley joined most Democrats and consumer protection groups in supporting Richard Cordray's appointment to the new consumer protection agency.The Associated Press/file